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THE MEMORIAL CHURCH 
AND BUILDINGS 



UNITARIAN MEMORIAL CHURCH AND 
PARISH HOUSE 



THE 

MEMORIAL CHURCH 

AND BUILDINGS 



FAIRHAVEN 
MASSACHUSETTS 



anti 




PRIVATELY PRINTED 
MCMVI 




THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, T7. S. A. 



THE TRANSFORMED ROCK 



OUR mother earth, with stintless measure. 
Yielded to art her priceless treasure; 
To human hands of wondrous skill 
She bared her bosom to the drill; 
With breath of flame and voice of thunder 
Her giant frame was rent asunder. 

The iron pierced her loyal heart, 
And tore her mighty ribs apart; 
Then, from the travail of her throes, 
Man with his sure divining rod 
Reared slowly 'neath the vaulted shy 
This temple to the living God. 

0 rock our childhood feet have pressed, 
Within thy wide-spread arms we rest, 
Beneath thy vaulted arch we tread, 
With reverent mien we bow the head; 
Inspired by faith we seem to see 
The far-off mount of Calvary. 

0 rock! by sculptor's art redeemed, 
Fling wide your gates, that all may see 
The glorious lessons graven here, 
Of faith and hope and charity. 
Ring, chimes, your welcome to the world; 
Your message send from shore to shore 
Of peace on earth, good will to men, 
Forever more, — forever more. 



INTRODUCTION 



HE church, parish house, 
and parsonage of the Uni- 
tarian Society of Fairhaven, 
dedicated on Tuesday, Octo- 
ber fourth, 1904, form a 
group of beautiful buildings. 
They were erected by Henry 
H. Rogers as a memorial to 
his mother, Mary Eldredge 
Rogers, who died in Fairhaven on November ninth, 
1899, in the eighty-ninth year of her age. 

During the month of April, 1901, work was begun 
on the buildings, and the corner-stone was laid shortly 
after five o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, August 
fifth, of the same year. The speakers on this occasion 
were Rev. Robert Collyer, Rev. Minot J. Savage, 
D.D., and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). 

The corner-stone, of Royal Blue limestone, rests in 
the east corner of the turret which forms the northeast 
corner of the tower. Within its copper box are the 
following articles: History of the Unitarian Church 
for fifty-seven years; list of deceased members and list 
of living members of the society ; Fairhaven Directory ; 
" Christian Register " ; Fairhaven " Star " ; New Bed- 
ford " Standard " ; New Bedford " Mercury 99 ; Ameri- 
can Unitarian Association Year Book; account of 
the American Unitarian Association's seventy-fifth 
anniversary; report of the Unitarian Sunday School; 

[vii] 




INTRODUCTION 



town report for 1900-1901; Snow's "Illustrated 
Fairhaven " ; list of State officers ; list of United 
States government officers ; programme of service 
of corner-stone laying; church covenant and by- 
laws ; photographs of old church and of all the 
pastors ; schedule of architects and those in charge 
of construction. 

The dedication of the parish house was on Tues- 
day, January sixth, 1903, when the seventy-third 
session of the Channing Conference was held in the 
new building. The address of dedication was made by 
Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, D.D., president of the Uni- 
tarian Association of Boston ; and other speakers were 
Rev. Augustus A. Lord, minister of the First Uni- 
tarian Society of Providence, R. I. ; Rev. Edward A. 
Hortox, president of the Unitarian Sunday School 
Society ; Rev. Wieliam B. Geoghegan, minister of 
the First Congregational (Unitarian) Society of New 
Bedford; and Joe C. Tripp, who made the address 
of welcome on behalf of the Unitarian Society of 
Fairhaven. 

This book contains a complete record of the exer- 
cises of dedication of the church and an architectural 
description. 

THE church is designed in the very latest phase of 
fifteenth-century English Gothic, commonly known 
as perpendicular, a style eminently appropriate from 
a sentimental point of view, in addition to its great 
charm from an architectural standpoint. In the 
designing of the parish building there has been a 
blending of the collegiate and the domestic architecture 
employed in England contemporaneously with the per- 

[ vffi ] 



INTRODUCTION 



pendicular, and in the parsonage the domestic archi- 
tecture of the reign of Queen Elizabeth has been used 
as a guide. The walls of the exterior of the church 
and parish house, as well as the first story of the 
parsonage, are of granite, taken from Love Rock, 
a ledge near Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven, which has 
a very great variety of warm coloring, and the orna- 
mental portions are all of limestone of a dark tone 
of color from the Royal Blue quarries in Indiana. 

The church is one hundred feet long in the body, 
not including the projections, and fifty-three feet wide. 
The nave is thirty-two feet wide and seventy-one feet 
long, and the main aisle sixty-one feet long and six 
feet wide. There are thirty pews in the church. The 
chancel is at the west end, the organ divided and 
located at either side. A brilliant memorial window, 
representing " The Nativity," twenty-four feet in 
height, comprising five panels, executed by Robert 
Reid of New York, is in the west wall of the church, 
and opposite is a window of similar size, by the same 
artist, picturing " The Sermon on the Mount." 

The architect of the church buildings was Charles 
Brigham of Boston, who also designed the Fairhaven 
Town Hall, the Millicent Library, and Mr. Rogers's 
home in Fairhaven. T _ 

THE history of the church dates from November 
twenty-eight, 1819, when a number of persons, dis- 
satisfied with the harsh and rigid Calvinistic doctrines 
of that day, met at the home of one of their number, 
and decided to hold a series of religious meetings, 
under the leadership of Elder Moses Howe, with a 
view of forming a church under the Christian order, 

[ ix ] 



INTRODUCTION 



which in doctrine was mainly Unitarian, but in prac- 
tice similar to the Baptist. The meetings created a 
deep interest and a number of citizens were baptized. 

A church was organized November thirty, 1820, 
with forty -five members. On September fourth, 1821, 
Elder Charles Morbridge was ordained pastor. In 
1830 there seems to have been a discontinuance of the 
services, but in 1832 interest was revived, and at a 
meeting January eleventh, 1832, it was voted to build 
the church which was situated at the north-east west 
corner of Washington and Walnut streets at a cost 
of $4800. It is now occupied as a public school. 
On December seventh, 1832, the society was organized 
with twenty-two members. Elder William H. Taylor 
of Fall River was the first pastor; and during the 
three years that followed more than one hundred peo- 
ple were admitted to membership. In 1841, William 
Miller, an expounder of the second advent doctrine, 
created a sensation. His preaching caused trouble, 
and thirty-three persons were dismissed. In November, 
1842, Elder Stephen Fellows became pastor, and 
he was voted the rather uncertain salary of " all we 
can raise." In 1844 it was decided to engage a 
regular Unitarian minister, and Rev. Thomas Dawes 
was selected. 

The following pastors have served the church: 
Thomas Dawes, 1844-1853; Courtlaxd Y. De- 
Normandie, 1856-1869 ; Ellery Channing But- 
ler, 1869-1872; Alfred Manchester, 1873-1878; 
James M. Leighton, 1878-1891 ; Don C. Stevens, 
1892-1893; Herbert L. Buzzell, 1893-1896; Wil- 
liam Brunton, 1896-1905 ; Frank L. Phalen, 1906. 

[*] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 
MEMORIAL CHURCH 

EXERCISES OF DEDICATION 
MORNING SERVICE 

HE dedication of the Memo- 
rial Church took place on 
Tuesday, October fourth, 
1904, a mild, clear, fall day. 
At nine o'clock in the morn- 
ing the largest bell of the 
chimes was rung for twenty 
minutes, and a programme 
of religious and secular airs 
followed. At half past ten o'clock the chiming for the 
service was begun, and among the tunes played were 
" Holy, Holy, Holy," Duke Street, and Dennis, these 
three being included at the request of Mr. Rogers. 
The tolling of the large bell completed the morning 
programme of the chimes. 

Within the church every pew was filled at eleven 
o'clock, when an organ prelude by Rheinberger, played 
by J. Wallace Goodrich, organist of Trinity Church, 
Boston, who sat at the organ on this occasion, marked 
the beginning of the exercises. The opening service, 

[i] 




THE F AIR H AVE N 



read by Rev. William Brunton, pastor of the church, 
follows : 

TO BE READ BY THE MINISTER 

The Lord is in his holy temple : let all the earth keep 
silence before him. 

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, 
to all that call upon him in truth. 

The hour cometh and now is, when the true worship- 
pers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for 
the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a 
spirit ; and they that worship him, must worship him in 
spirit and in truth. 

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his 
name together: for with him is the fountain of life, 
and in his light shall we see light. 

THEN SHALL THE MINISTER SAY 

In the holy quiet of this hour, let us draw nigh to 
him who heareth prayer ; and let us remember that he 
listeneth more to our hearts than to our words. Let 
each of us bring an offering of penitence, if not of 
purity ; of love, if not of holiness ; of teachableness, 
if not of wisdom; of devout obedience for the time to 
come, if not the fruits of well-doing in the time that is 
past. And may we obtain mercy, and find grace to 
help in time of need. Let us pray. 

RESPONSE BY THE PEOPLE (iN ITALICS) 

Most mighty God and merciful Father, who hast 
compassion on all men, and hatest nothing that thou 
hast made: take from us all impurity of thought or 
desire; all envy, pride, hypocrisy; all falsehood and 
deceit ; all covetousness, vainglory, and indolence ; all 

[2] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



malice and anger, — everything that is contrary to 
thy will, O most holy God. 

Lord make clean our hearts within us. 

Enlighten our understandings, that we may know 
the greatness of thy love, the mysteries of thy kingdom, 
and the riches of thine eternal glory. 

Hear us, 0 Lord, for our trust is in thee. 

Assist us in all our doings with thy gracious favor, 
and further us with thy continual help: that in all our 
works, begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may 
glorify thy holy name. 

Hear us, and give us thy peace, 0 Father in heaven. 

Shed abroad thy love in our hearts, that we may love 
thee above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves, 
and be abundantly refreshed by the charity which 
never faileth. 

O Lord, multiply upon us the blessings of thy grace. 

Protect and bless our friends and kindred; and so 
fill us with love, gentleness, and forbearance that we 
may walk in our homes with a perfect heart, and have 
joy in each other which passeth not away. 

0 Father in Heaven, hear and help us, and keep us 
in thy love evermore. 
Amen. 

O God, who hast consecrated unto us a new and liv- 
ing way into thy holy presence, grant to us, we pray 
thee, the assurance of thy mercy, and sanctify us by 
thy heavenly grace, that we, approaching thee with 
a pure heart and undefiled conscience, may offer unto 
thee a sacrifice in righteousness and love. O God, mer- 
cifully accept the prayers of thy holy church through 

[3] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



the world which shall this day be offered unto thee; 
give us grace to prepare our hearts, that we may serve 
thee with reverence and godly fear ; that so, approach- 
ing thy sanctuary with lowliness and devotion, we may 
present an offering acceptable to thee, and in the spirit 
of him who hath taught us to pray : 

TO BE SAID BY THE MINISTER AND THE PEOPLE 

Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy 
name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, 
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, 
and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who 
trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation ; 
but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and 
the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. 

O Lord, open thou our eyes. 

That we may behold wondrous things out of thy law. 

O Lord, open thou our lips ; 

And our mouths shall show forth thy praise. 

Praise ye the Lord. 

The Lord's name be praised. 

The choir, which consisted of Miss Lucy N. Allen, 
soprano, Miss Allie May Hoitt, contralto, Clarence H. 
Chute, bass, and Walter Knowles, tenor, sang the Te 
Deum Laudamus, by Buck. 

Rev. William B. Geoghegan, minister of the First 
Congregational (Unitarian) Church of New Bedford, 
read from the Scriptures the fifty-fifth chapter of the 
book of Isaiah, and selections from the Sermon on the 
Mount, fifth chapter of Matthew. 

[4] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



Miss Allen sang " Come Unto Him," by Handel, and 
the following prayer was made by Rev. William 
Brunton : 

" Our Father who art in heaven, we bless thy holy 
name for all the gifts of thy love, for the love thou 
hast put into our hearts to love thee and to serve thee. 
We bless thee that it is the highest joy of our life to 
worship thee in spirit and in truth. Give us this day 
spiritual food, inspire us with new thoughts, new feel- 
ings, and new determinations of good. We praise thee 
that we love to meet together in the spirit of brother- 
hood given us by the Christ, and that in concord and 
love we receive thy benediction. We bless thy name for 
the house of worship ; may it move us to a deeper 
reverence and a higher service. May it speak to us of 
the home with all its beatitudes, with all the sweetness 
of its fidelities, and the tenderness and truth there 
expressed. For the strength of the home we bless thy 
name; for the spirit of love and helpfulness we praise 
thee. 

" And that this house may help us in life, in our 
labor and friendship, make it to us the house of prayer ; 
may the gospel of life be life to us. May we learn how 
sacred is all time, and how holy all places. May we 
dedicate it to faith, hope, and love. May we dedicate 
ourselves to the Christ law and service, and in all 
things be thy true children, and to thee, O God, be the 
praise and glory forever. Amen." 

A response by the choir, composed by Chadwick, 
followed the prayer, and the congregation then sang 
hymn 53: 

[5] 



THE F AIRH AVE N 



O God, whose presence glows in all 

Within, around us, and above ! 
Thy word we bless, thy name we call, 

Whose word is Truth, whose name is Love. 

That truth be with the heart believed, 

Of all who seek this sacred place ; 
With power proclaimed, in peace received, — 

Our spirits' light, thy Spirit's grace. 

That love its holy influence pour, 
To keep us meek and make us free, 

And throw its binding blessing more 
Round each with all, and all with thee. 

Send down its angel to our side ; 

Send in its calm upon the breast ; 
For we would know no other guide, 

And we can need no other rest. 

The sermon of dedication, " The Church," by Rev. 
Minot J. Savage, D.D., pastor of the Church of The 
Messiah in New York City, follows: 

" I am to speak to you concerning the church. My 
text I have taken from the first letter of Paul to Tim- 
othy, the third chapter and the fifteenth verse : 6 The 
church of the living God.' If there be a living God, 
if there be a church of the living God, then that church 
will live and grow. Arid yet I suppose, in the history 
of the world, there has never been so much question on 
the part of intelligent people as to the truth of reli- 
gion. There are thousands of noble men who believe 
that it is something connected only with the childhood 
of the race, and they consider that it is to be outgrown 
and left behind. There are certain superficial facts 
that would seem to indicate that this might be true. 

[6] 



INTERIOR OF CHURCH 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



As we go back and down towards the far-off begin- 
nings of human life and trace the pathway by which 
we have come until to-day, that pathway is strewn all 
along the ages with the wrecks of once popular reli- 
gions. There are altars on which the fires are no 
longer kindled; there are temples innumerable now 
dismantled; there are the images of gods no longer 
worshipped. 

" And when we come to the history of Christianity 
itself we are face to face with the fact that theory after 
theory, theology after theology has passed away, been 
outgrown, left behind. And so it is not strange, per- 
haps, that people should ask as to what the outcome is 
likely to be. There may be some reason in the question 
as to whether or not the church is to endure as an 
institution among men. I will therefore offer no apol- 
ogy for raising this question and asking you to con- 
sider it with me. 

" What is religion ? It is not theology ; it is not the 
churches ; it is not the temples ; it is not Bibles ; it is 
not rituals, sacraments, ceremonies, prayers ; it is none 
of these things essentially, though all of them have 
been and may be partial manifestations of its life. 

" I wish you to consider with me not what we mean 
by religion to-day, or what an ordinary Christian 
would give as his definition of religion ; let us go 
deeper than that and ask ourselves what any religion 
means. What has been the religious purpose of the 
world? In any form of religious service what have 
they been trying to do? If you will think of it for a 
moment, you will find that everywhere, in every nation, 
from the beginning of things until to-day, men have 
been animated by one purpose, the same purpose, and 

[7] 



THE F AIRH AVE N 



have been engaged in one endeavor. Men have always 
been trying to find God. We say God. In the old 
days of polytheism it was one of the gods, for they 
naturally and necessarily believed in many gods. 
They had not as yet attained the knowledge that this 
is a universe, and that one power is manifested through 
it. There is one power manifested in it, whatever we 
may think or know of that power. All the various 
forces are only different manifestations of one power. 
It had never occurred to them to dream, as Herbert 
Spencer tells us is true, that not only is there one 
infinite energy and power manifested in the universe, 
but that it is the same power which wells up in us under 
the form of consciousness. But whether they have 
thought that there were many invisible powers or one, 
the thing they have been striving for always has been 
to find out the nature of that invisible power and get 
into right relations with it. They have always tried 
to find out its laws and obey them. They have tried to 
discover its will and submit themselves to it. 

" It is not at all strange that religion in the past 
has accepted many crude and superstitious theories. 
Religion has shared the fate of all other institutions 
whatsoever. They made mistakes in law; they made 
mistakes in government; they have made mistakes in 
art ; they have made mistakes in music ; they have 
made mistakes in every department of human life; 
and this means nothing but the truism that the world 
began in ignorance and barbarism, and it has been 
growing. 

" This, then, has been the eternal search of religion 
— an attempt to find God. Sometimes they thought 
that what God wanted was ceremony, or sacrament, or 

[8] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



a prayer, or the writing of a book, or the framing of a 
certain creed, and they have tried faithfully, the best 
they could, to find out what was wanted and do it. Are 
we going to outgrow that sentiment? Consider it just 
for a moment! One thing is certain, and we know it 
with a certainty that attaches to no other item of human 
knowledge. We know the existence of an eternal 
power. If we give up the problem as to its nature as 
insoluble, that is merely to take the position of the 
agnostic. But even if you do not know what this power 
is, you know that the power is, as you can study its 
laws. The power was here before we were born ; it will 
be here after we have died; and while we are here all 
that we desire — life, health, prosperity, success in 
every direction — means a knowledge of the laws of 
this power and obedience to them. To make my point 
clear by way of illustration, perhaps you will remem- 
ber what a certain old minister said : 4 If the Lord is 
going to have a church at all down in my place, it has 
got to be made up of the kind of people who are there.' 
So, in any age, in any nation, religion must naturally 
organize itself; the nature and quality of the organi- 
zation will be determined by the ideas and qualities of 
the people concerned. The point I wish you to notice 
is this: that everywhere people have tried to find, as 
well as they knew how, this invisible power and to obey 
it. That and that only is religion in every age of the 
history of mankind. 

" No matter, so far as my present point is con- 
cerned, what the nature of this power may be. Sup- 
pose it is only force and matter, it exists just the same, 
and is power just the same. This power, whether it is 
an infinite and eternal and a living God, or only blind 

[9] 



THE FAIRHAVE N 



force and matter, still it has produced all that is. It 
is your Father. And the one most important thing 
in all the world is for you to know what you can about 
the laws of this power and become obedient to it. 

" And here let me say, with all the emphasis of which 
I am capable, that tins relation between the individual 
soul and this eternal power is a deathless relation. It 
is more important than any other relation of which we 
can conceive. No matter what our theory of this 
power may be, the fact of the vital nature of this rela- 
tion remains. We can never outgrow or escape it. As 
well might the eagle think to outfly the atmosphere as 
for a man to imagine he can outgrow this relation, that 
which is the essence and the eternal meaning of reli- 
gion. As long as the universe lasts, and as long as 
there is a man in it capable of thinking about the 
power manifested in it, and his relation to it, so long 
must it endure. 

" And the church ! It is not a very important mat- 
ter as to what form it takes, whether Presbyterian, 
Unitarian, or some other. That is not the great thing. 
The one thing certain is that the church is not going 
down. What do I mean by that? I mean that in 
any walk of life, music, art, literature, government, 
no matter what it may be, all the permanent interests 
of human life tend always to incarnate themselves in 
some form. People holding certain ideas inevitably 
gravitate together and co-operate. Religious organi- 
zation then will inevitably be as permanent as religion 
itself. 

" Now, I wish you to note that I have said that the 
one great thing that religion and the church exist for 
is to help men to find and get into right relations with 

[10] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



God. I wish you also to note that this is the one great 
thing which the world needs. And helping men in this 
search is the one distinguishing and permanent char- 
acteristic of religion and the church. In other words, 
men in all ages, in every religion, have been trying to 
find God and get into right relations with him. That 
is, they have been trying to make human life what 
it ought to be ; to make it the best they knew how at the 
time. Suppose we do that to-day. What does it mean ? 
It means that we shall have no creed except truth; for 
we find that truth is the only thing that is safe. A 
man's mistake, if it is ever so old and moss-grown and 
beautiful with age, is only a mistake, and it is not 
worthy of your reverence. 

" We want the truth, because the truth is God ; the 
truth seeker is the God seeker. We want the truth; 
and then we want righteousness; that is, right rela- 
tions between man and man. If we can only attain 
that, then we shall have brought about that perfect 
condition of mankind that the prophets and the poets 
and the seers have dreamed of in every age and history 
of the world. It is the one great thing to attain. The 
church, then, is one of the grandest institutions in all 
this world. Why ? Because it is the one and only insti- 
tution that exists for the sake of making men and 
women what they ought to be. I claim for the ministry, 
also, that it is the grandest position that any man on 
this earth can occupy. Why? Because it is the minis- 
ter's business to help people to think, to find the truth, 
and to live ; and the most important thing that any man 
can do is to think and find the truth and live — more 
important than writing books or making money or 
engaging in any other occupation whatsoever. The 

[ii] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 

church, I say, is the only institution that exists purely 
and simply for this end. Business exists for the pur- 
pose of making money; and it is well. But money is 
only power; and it may be used either for evil or for 
good. Music gives wings to human emotion; but it 
does not necessarily make people better. Art beautifies 
life; but it may or may not improve it. Government 
may not make people better. It expresses what people 
are. By its laws it tries to protect the weak. But 
people are not made good by law or force. The 
church, then, I say, is the one only institution on the 
face of the earth that exists for the sole and simple 
purpose of making men and women what they ought 
to be. Good men have always been trying to find some 
way by which to abolish the evils which burden and 
afflict mankind. Most of them, at any rate, can be 
abolished. And there is only one way. If all men and 
women will only try to find and obey the laws of God, 
our millennial dreams may come true. Of course vice 
and evil would cease. That poverty which is evil — as 
we find it in our city slums — would disappear. For 
most of this grows out of moral conditions. I would 
myself undertake to relieve all honest need, if only the 
vice and fraud could be eliminated. I could find enough 
strong and willing men to back me. Then, again, if 
all men sought only the right and fair way of doing 
things, all commercial dishonesty would disappear. As 
an illustration, take the difficulties which have so dis- 
turbed the building trades in New York. What do 
they mean ? Do they mean that there is some insoluble, 
intellectual problem here? that people are not wise 
enough to know what they ought to do? It means 
nothing of the kind. They can be solved in twenty- 

[12] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



four hours if the people on both sides are willing to 
come together and confer, if each one, instead of trying 
to overreach the other, would only try to find a fair 
basis for their common relations. 

" All the good that has come to the world yet f rom 
the beginning until to-day has come along the lines that 
I am speaking of, — along the lines of the endeavor 
of religion and the work of the church. It means 
simply that men have gradually become more nearly 
just, more sympathetic, that is all. All the good that is 
in the world has come along these lines and only these. 
Herbert Spencer told us in the last book he published 
before his death, — and you know that he, if any man 
ever did, stood for the intellectual side of life, — he 
told us, and he emphasized it over and over again, that 
education was not enough, that to make men intellec- 
tual was not the same thing as making them moral. 

64 We talk about a man buying his place and using 
his position to line his own pocket, using public money 
for himself ; and we know that governments in the past 
have been undermined and have toppled down for no 
other reason than this ; and that there is no reason in 
the nature of things why this government should be 
immune and exempt. It is the same human nature, and 
unless we build our political house on these eternal prin- 
ciples of right, there is no permanence for us any more 
than there was for ancient Greece or Rome. We may 
pass laws. A shrewd practitioner will discover an open- 
ing in them. You cannot make people good by law. 

" There is another thing to be said right here. By 
following the ideals of the highest and truest religion 
and the church we can reach most of the world's diseases. 
Nearly all the diseases of the world have their roots in 

[13] 



THE FAIRHAVE N 



immoral conditions. The laws of health are God's 
laws, and to break them is immoral. If a man is 
sick as the result of his own conduct he ought to be 
ashamed of it as much as of any other immoral action. 
Of course it is true that many of our diseases are 
inherited. But that means only that our ancestors 
broke God's laws. Many diseases are the result of 
ignorance. But to know God's laws and keep them, — 
that is, to be truly religious, — would mean the health 
of the world. 

" There remains the one great, crowning evil — as 
we are accustomed to think it — of death. However 
good we are, this, some day, we must face. Is there 
any way by which death may be conquered? I know of 
but one way. I do know of some people to whom it 
means no more than a voyage to Liverpool. I have a 
friend; his name would be known to you, and you 
would all say you loved him if I should pronounce it, — 
a name famous in this country and abroad. I was talk- 
ing with him not a great while ago, and he said: 4 If 
my wife did not need me (and I think she does) I should 
be perfectly happy to go to-night.' What did that 
mean? That he was morbid? Not at all. It meant 
that he became thoroughly persuaded in his own mind 
that death was only a journey to another place, 
and that the friends that he had lost here were over 
there waiting for him; that he would go with the same 
delight with which the last member of a company would 
embark for some foreign city, in which hosts of his 
friends were waiting to receive him. I believe this to 
be a reasonable hope, and I incline to think we are on 
the eve of demonstrating it as true. 

" The point for you to consider in a practical way 

[ ] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 

is as to whether this is proved or not. If the highest 
and noblest of the church could have their way, prac- 
tically all the great evils that burden and break the 
hearts of men would be outgrown and left behind. 
You cannot fail then to be persuaded that religion is 
the supreme element in human life. This means that 
you are to recognize these laws on which your own 
welfare depends. So long as you fail to do this, just 
so far as your influence extends, you are responsible 
for continuing the crushing burdens of the world. It 
is your first great duty to recognize the supreme im- 
portance of this religious life. 

" It is your great duty, also, I believe, to link your- 
selves in with others, that you may spread these great 
truths for the deliverance of the world from its evil. I 
do not know that there is any divine compulsion in the 
matter of church membership beyond these considera- 
tions. If you can find certain people who believe sub- 
stantially as you do, and with whom you can co-operate, 
and if by joining yourselves with them you can do more 
than you can do alone, then it is your duty to become 
associated with them ; that is, join the church. I would 
say, find the church which best represents your ideas ; 
then cast in your influence with that church. 

" If you believe in truth in any direction, if you 
believe in reform, and if you believe there is some or- 
ganization by joining which you can help on the world's 
work better than by not joining it, you will join it. 
If you can do as much good in some other way, then 
do it. If you can do more by co-operating with those 
that stand ready to help, then co-operate with them. 

" We all recognize the supremacy of that which we 
mean when we talk about the spiritual life. What do 

[15] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



we mean by the spiritual life? We mean love; we 
mean sympathy ; we mean consecration ; we mean self- 
sacrifice; we mean living up here in the region of the 
mind that constitutes a man a man. You share a large 
part of your faculties with the other animals. Only 
up here in these regions which we call spiritual are love, 
sympathy, consecration, devotion, belief in this infinite 
and eternal power and the hope of an eternal life. It 
is only up in here that you find those qualities that 
distinguish a man from other animals. By coming up 
here, then, you climb up into the real ranges of your 
manhood. So you become a man ; and by becoming 
a man you render the grandest help possible to all 
other men. 

" If the religion of the church in its highest and 
noblest manifestations can have its way, then it is 
reasonable to hope. You can look forward to the time 
when men will live the pure and noble life; look for- 
ward to the time of blessed and happy homes ; you can 
foresee an age when nearly all the evils of the world 
shall be eliminated, and men shall live sweetly, trust- 
fully, hopefully, and go forward and come to the edge 
of the river without any dread or fear. If we could not, 
we should be imprisoned forever here on this planet. 
But Death, God's angel and our friend, comes, opens 
the door of our prison-house and sets us free. So we 
become citizens of the universe, and enter into the 
larger life for which this is only a primary school of 
preparation. 

" Let us cherish these high ideals, these noble hopes, 
and do what we can to turn our ideals into a reality. 

" Father, we thank thee that a vision like this has 
dawned upon our souls. It is so sweet that we hope 

[16] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



it is true; we think it must be true; at any rate, we 
will consecrate ourselves to the way which leads towards 
its realization. Amen." 

After the sermon an organ selection by Widor was 
played by Mr. Goodrich, and the solo, " Eye Hath Not 
Seen," by Gaul, sung by Miss Hoitt, followed. 

Rev. Robert Collyer, pastor emeritus of the 
Church of the Messiah, made the following address: 

" This is a glad day, dear friends, for you who will 
hold this new church henceforth as your sacred trust, 
and for those who, like myself, have come from the 
sister churches to share in your gladness ; and for your 
town of Fairhaven, where those within the Christian 
fold who cannot accept all the articles of our belief 
have extended to you the right hand of fellowship ; this 
church, which will stand, as we trust, through many 
centuries of time in the strength the founder and the 
wise master-builders have hidden in these walls from 
the first stone in the foundation to " the top stone of 
the corner," and the beauty that will not wither as the 
centuries wax and wane, but will ripen as the good fruit 
ripens in the fulness of the year. 

" This church, which was hidden in the heart of the 
founder, first as a dream of a son's love for his mother, 
when he would speak to his old friend and minister of 
his purpose in the tones we love so to hear when the 
heart answers to the voice. And of the upbuilding so 
fair and true he would speak with gladness, as the good 
work fared on toward the perfection we see this day. 
A noble woman has said: 6 We never call him fatherless 
who has God and his mother,' and in those sacred names 

[17] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



for worship and for love this memorial church is built 
and is dedicated. 

" In the northern shire of my motherland, where the 
churches in each ancient commune date backward 
through many centuries, one nearest to me, about which 
I shall say some words this evening, is older than the 
time of the Norman conquest. They hold a feast every 
year on the day the church was dedicated to the wor- 
ship of God and in the name of the saint the founders 
and the folk would choose for their patron. The 
church I hold in my mind and heart was dedicated in 
a far-away lost century on the fourteenth of Septem- 
ber, which in that year fell on a Sunday, and this is 
still the day when the feast is held; but if the day does 
not fall true to that Sunday it begins on the first 
Sunday after and lasts a week, or until the friends and 
kinsfolk who come from far and wide have eaten us — 
as my dear mother would say — out of house and 
home, as she laughed over the empty larder. So we 
meet as they began to meet in each small commune in 
a year of a century so long forgotten. And as children 
of the old Puritan stock we are shy of the saints' names 
in the dedication of our churches. I do not know of 
one so baptized, and presume there are none; but if 
it were not so, and I could choose a name, this church 
should be called Saint Mary's, — and who can know so 
well as the giver of this memorial how well worthy the 
dear mother was of the name, — and somewhere within 
this sacred fane I would have the poet's noble lines 
graven deep on the marble : 

" Son's love built me, and I hold 
Mother's love engrav'n in gold. 
Love is in and out of time, 
[18] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



I am mortal stone and lime ; 
Would my granite girth were strong 
As either love, to last as long. 

" I said we are all glad for this noble gift from the 
heart and the hand of our dear friend, who was born 
here and raised in the good home and then went forth 
from the home and church to do his good day's work 
and true, from that time to this glad morning my stead- 
fast friend and helper through all the years, and of 
my dear brother through these eight years of his 
ministry in our city. But if I may make a good con- 
fession and then leave this word, I could not fail to say 
in your name and my own there are times when I feel 
by no means sorry, — when I have to preach, — and 
miss him from his pew. 

" When an eminent minister said once to Dr. Dewey, 
who would now and then preach an old sermon, ' Why 
do you preach these old sermons everybody remem- 
bers? ' the swift answer was : 6 Why do you preach old 
sermons nobody remembers ? ' Mr. Rogers told me 
once that he remembered every sermon he heard me 
preach in the first, say, six years of my ministry ; and 
when we held the union service in the sister church the 
other Sunday he had the boldness to say when I came 
home, 4 Was it the same old Job ? ' And it was. 

" The sister church of our Congregational order, 
I said, where I was invited to take the pulpit in the Old 
Home week last year, and carried the glow of that 
Sunday in my heart to meet another just now ; because 
this is a sign and by no means stands alone of the truth 
that in this new century the churches of our order will 
find their way to a new fellowship and be one in heart 
and purpose, while we still stand true to our faith in 

[19] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



his name who said: 4 The truth shall make you free.' 
For that was a sore trouble your great grandsires fell 
on in the first quarter, shall I say, of the last century, 
when the churches in New England were cloven in 
twain on the question of the Trinity or Unity. 

" John Robinson had told the Pilgrims that more 
light would shine for them out of the Holy Book, and 
they must by no means halt at Luther or Calvin. The 
light had stolen into the hearts of men like Ebenezer 
Gay of Hingham, and they would say things in their 
sermons now and then that touch you as the early 
spring days touch you when you begin to look for the 
mayflower and the snowdrop, — men who, when the 
vision touched them, would tell their people what they 
had seen in the mount when they communed with God, 
and then they would settle down in the old grooves, 
not having received the promise, but seeing it afar off. 
But this could not go on forever; the time must come 
when the declaration must be made of independence for 
the soul's life as it was made for the nation's life, to be 
free from saying with your lips what your heart denies, 
and the man walk free from the bondage of the dead 
hands in Hippo and Geneva. They must be free from 
the platforms and the standards ; and so as your chem- 
ist will show you a vapor held in his phial without form 
and void, but then in a moment, at one touch, the 
shining cloud will take form in a beautiful crystal — so 
our first great apostle, Channing, touches the shining 
cloud in his sermon in Baltimore. 

" Yet there was no thought or purpose in the fore- 
fathers of our faith of breaking away from the old 
friendships and fellowships; they wanted to be free as 
the truth could make them — that and no more, that 

[20] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



and no less. They still wanted to gather about the old 
altars, and in the old homes, and to have no division. 
The far-reaching loyalty lay on their hearts for the 
old churches which had grown so sacred in the course 
of time. Sorrow and joy had fallen to their lot as to 
ours. They had gone there side by side, as the custom 
was on the Sunday after their wedding, trying to seem 
as if nothing in particular had befallen them, and had 
failed of course, for gleams of a smile would greet them 
even from the minister. 

" They had brought the little children to be blessed, 
not by the minister alone but by the good human hearts 
beating all about them. They had come with their 
burden of sorrow, when one was taken and the other 
left, to be aware of a sweet and tender pity flowing 
over them from the neighbors and friends of many 
years. 

" And the line of separation, if it was drawn, would 
invade the living room and cut across the hearthstone 
to part some who had sat together, it may be, from 
their youth to their golden wedding, or strike down 
between some who were just beginning to be aware of 
the secret which would make the twain one and tear 
them apart forever. The separation would narrow 
down the whole to the half in the interply of friendship 
and fellowship, and cast a shadow over the very graves. 
There could be no such Thanksgivings again as there 
had been, or any festivals where the home plays the 
first part. Or the sympathy that shines in the eyes 
and reaches us in a clasp of the hand, just that and no 
more, when the world grows dark for us in the shadows 
of death. The story was told me long ago by an old 
friend, who knew it all by heart, and had shared it in 

[21] 



THE F AIRH AVE N 



a town among the hills of New Hampshire, and there 
were tears in his tones as he talked. And so I rejoice 
more and more in the generous heart I find now in what 
we still call the orthodox churches ; in the ever-growing 
hunger to know what the Christian manhood is really 
worth in the weight and worth of character as these 
strike the line against creed and dogma; the good 
heart and generous that will not rate you as snide or 
pewter because you worship in one church, and silver 
or gold because you worship in another, but will say, 
4 a man 's a man for a' that,' no matter about the name, 
or what the good woman I talked with in Kansas called 
the 4 domination.' 

44 And if I know the heart of my friend after twenty- 
five years, this will be a free church in which no man 
will be turned away from her wide and welcome doors, 
while she will still stand true to the truth we hold and 
maintain. Heretic or orthodox, misbeliever or unbe- 
liever, she will say, 4 Come in, by all means, in the 
name of God and of his Christ,' and as my faith stands 
sure the time foretold by the great poet and seer will 
come when 

" The morning mists of earth 
Shall fade in the noon of heaven, 
When creed and race 

Shall bear false witness each of each no more, 
But find their limits in the larger light 
And overstep thein, — moving easily 
Through the after ages in the love of Truth, 
The Truth of Love." 

The prayer of dedication made by Rev. Robert 

CoLEYER follows: 

[22] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



" Our Father who art in heaven, in whom we live and 
move and have our being, thy children have gathered 
here to dedicate this temple unto thee, in thy name, 
and to thy service. We know that except thou build 
the house, they labor in vain who build it; ma}?- this 
house stand in thy strength, and in the beauty of holi- 
ness through the ages to come, safe-guarded by thee, 
the master-builder in all things good and true. May 
thy children who gather here on the holy day worship 
thee, the Father, in the spirit and in truth, psalm and 
prayer welling up from their hearts in reverence and 
love, and all the days be holy in the work thou hast 
given them to do. May this church be their home, 
and they one family in thee and in thy Christ; the 
mother church and all the homes from which they 
gather for worship in this place be held sacred in 
thy service and thy holy name; the mother church 
and the shrine, holding in its heart a mother's love, 
to which the children will come from the many homes 
to be nurtured in our holy Gospel, and when we have 
done with life and time, hold this church in their 
hearts' love and go forth far and wide in the world, 
bearing her benediction and faithful to her nurture. 
A church of the living God, may the day never dawn 
when the voice will be heard saying unto her, 'Thou 
hast a name to live, but art dead.' May the promise be 
made good to her through all time : 6 Ye shall know the 
truth and the truth shall make you free,' — the truth 
thou hast revealed, shalt reveal, and art revealing now 
to thy great human family. 

" And may her doors open easily and wide for wel- 
come for all who come here, seeking help and blessing 
from her heart and her hands, while she stands true 

[23] 



THE F AIR H AVE N 



to the gospel of thy Christ and ours, who came to seek 
and to save that which was lost : the home born and the 
stranger within our gates, — the poor, the maimed, the 
halt, and the blind ; may her heart be great and gener- 
ous to thy children, for these are thine everywhere, 
and most generous to those who are in the sorest need 
of her sympathy and succor, so that this shall be said 
of her : 6 Thy walls shall be called salvation and thy 
gates praise.' A mother church in this place, may she 
be a sister church also, loving those who love thee, 
of every name or of no name, in the love that never 
faileth, and join with them hand and heart in every 
good word and work. 

" So may she stand through the ages to come, true 
to the counsel of thy Son, 6 Let your light so shine 
before men that they shall see your good works and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven,' and thine 
shall be the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, 
for ever and ever. Amen." 

This hymn, by Dr. Savage, read by Rev. Ellery 
Channing Butler, of Quincy, a former pastor of the 
Fairhaven Unitarian society, was sung by the congre- 
gation to the tune of " Lead, Kindly Light " : 

Shine forth, O Truth, with thine all-conquering ray ; 

Let there be light ! 
Night longed has reigned, at last there dawns the day ; 

Let there be light ! 
Through many years, since first dim Time begun, 
Our feet have stumbled, waiting for the sun. 

Shine forth, O Truth, our eyes salute the dawn ; 
Let day appear ! 

[«*] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



How slow it seems the dark clouds are withdrawn ; 

Let day appear ! 
The waking peoples, from sleep roused at length, 
Thrill with the consciousness of unused strength. 

Lead on, O Truth, the way is far to go ; 

O Truth, lead on ! 
All truth, all life, all good are ours to know ; 

O Truth, lead on ! 
Lo, gleam before us there the shining gates, 
And for our taking, all God's glory waits. 

Rev. Mr. Butler pronounced the benediction, and 
the morning service came to a close with The Dresden 
Amen and the organist's postlude. 



[25] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



THE LUNCHEON 

A FTER the morning service, a luncheon was served 
/-% in the parish house. The dining-room and the 
entertainment room were thrown open to the 
guests, who sat at many small tables made attractive 
with ferns and flowering plants. During the luncheon 
music was furnished by an orchestra of stringed instru- 
ments. Rev. Alfred Manchester of Salem, a former 
minister of the church, asked the blessing. 

After the luncheon there was a secular concert 
played on the church chimes. Familiar airs, such as 
" The Blue Bells of Scotland," " Suwanee River," and 
" Auld Lang Syne," constituted the programme. 



THE PARISH HOUSE 



EVENING VESPERS 




HE church was filled again 
in the evening, when, at half 
past seven o'clock, vesper ser- 
vices were held. An organ 
prelude by Guilmant marked 
the beginning of the service, 
and this was followed by the 
anthem, " The Lord is my 
Light," by H. W. Parker, 



sung by the choir. 



Rev. William Brunton made the invocation, and 
" Hear ye, Israel," by Mendelssohn, was sung by 
Miss Allen. The scriptures, read by Rev. Me. Brun- 
ton, were from the sixth chapter of the second book 
of Corinthians and the 122d Psalm. The prayer was 
made by Rev. Minot J. Savage, and a response by 
Chadwick was sung by the choir. 

This was followed by the singing of Hymn 295 by 
the congregation. The words of the hymn follow: 

Oh; sometimes gleams upon our sight. 
Through present wrong, the eternal right ; 
And step by step, since time began, 
We see the steady gain of man. 

That all of good the past hath had 
Remains to make our own time glad, 
Our common, daily life divine, 
And every land a Palestine. 



[27] 



THE FAIRHAVE N 



Through the harsh noises of our day, 
A low, sweet prelude finds its way ; 
Through clouds of doubt, and creeds of fear, 
A light is breaking calm and clear. 

Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
For olden time and holier shore ; 
God's love and blessing, then and there, 
And now and here and everywhere. 

The following address was made by Rev. William 
B. Geoghegan, minister of the First Congregational 
(Unitarian) Church of New Bedford: 

" We have been called together to dedicate this place 
of worship, and it is but natural that our minds should 
dwell upon the history and the function of the church. 

" By shallow thinkers the church has been under- 
valued because its history and functions have not been 
understood. They have looked upon it as an artificial 
and temporary institution. Springing up in supersti- 
tious times, they have declared that it would pass away 
with the superstitious beliefs with which it has been 
associated. 

" If we look beneath the conflict of creeds and sects, 
we see that the church is a product of forces inherent 
in human nature. It is not an artificial product created 
by priestcraft to be made an instrument of tyranny. 
Before the priest was differentiated from the mass of 
men the instinct of religion was alive and active in 
every heart. The function of the priest was not to 
kindle but to tend the sacred fire that burns upon the 
altar. 

" We now see clearly that, given the psychological 
conditions that distinguish human nature, religion is 

[28] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



a necessary consequence. It has been said that reli- 
gion is a sort of institutional thinking. God, freedom, 
and immortality have been the themes that have at- 
tracted the greatest intellects the race has produced. 
They are of perennial interest and inspiration. They 
cannot be exhausted, and the generations to come, as 
those that have gone, will look to them as the highest 
subjects on which human thought can be exercised. 

" The foundation of the church is not convention, 
but need. All institutions through which the life of man 
has found expression have come into being at the call 
of necessity. Man's complex nature finds expression 
in invention, in art, in worship. The necessities of the 
physical life have given birth to our vast industrial 
system. Manufacture and commerce are rooted in the 
imperative needs of our bodily life. However complex 
and scientific our modes of manufacture and methods 
of trade may be, they have been gradually developed 
to meet the needs which have arisen with the changes 
in our social life. We point with pride to the wonder- 
ful inventions of modern times, by which man's power 
over nature has been so vastly increased. Frequently 
we hear criticism of the extravagance to which sud- 
denly acquired wealth has led, but no one feels called 
upon to apologize for the inventions and improvements 
that have added so much to man's general well-being. 
The test of a progressive society is its ability to pro- 
duce inventions and utilize them for the well-being of 
its members. The law of life is movement, and rigidity 
comes only in the moment of death. 

" But man is not only the artisan ; he is artist as 
well. The aesthetic instinct is in us, although its cul- 
ture may differ by many degrees. Primitive men took 

[29] 



THE FAIR HAVE N 



delight in fashioning their implements of labor and war. 
Art is coeval with human life. Rudimentary as it may 
be with the cave man, it points forward to the highest 
achievements in architecture, sculpture, and painting. 
The aesthetic instinct is as constant a factor in life 
as hunger and thirst. Man cannot live without beauty 
any more than he can live without bread, and he who 
looks with open and trained eye may find the elements 
of beauty strangely mingling in the ordinary toil of 
life. 

" Soon the receptive eye and the skilful hand gained 
for themselves a distinct position even among primitive 
men, and the artist was differentiated from the mass 
of men. He made the best bows and arrows ; he built 
the best canoes ; finally, as civilization advanced, he con- 
structed the temples and wrought the quarried stone 
into noble forms, expressing his conceptions of deity. 

" It was natural that the artist should have an office 
created for him. Specialty endowed with susceptibility 
and skill, he satisfied the craving for the beautiful as 
none other could. He ministered at the shrine of 
beauty. He disclosed to others the splendid visions 
revealed to his gifted soul. 

" The steadily increasing number of pilgrims who 
annually visit the shrines of beauty in the old world 
testifies to man's hunger for the beautiful. When 
standing before the ruins of a Greek temple, or drink- 
ing in the grandeur of Michael Angelo or the glory of 
Raphael, does any one feel called on to explain or apol- 
ogize for the existence of these things ? No ! 6 Beauty 
is its own excuse for being.' The great works of art 
satisfy a deep and permanent need of the soul, and the 
life of the world would be sadly impoverished were they 

[SO] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



destroyed. Greater care is given to-day to the re- 
covery and preservation of works of art than ever 
before. No utilitarian philosophy can quench the love 
of the beautiful. 

" But art has ever found its highest function in min- 
istering to the religious life. All great minds revolve 
about the problems of life and destiny, and the great 
poets, philosophers, and artists meet in friendly inter- 
course upon the Olympian heights. No great thought 
has found its highest expression until it is clothed in 
beauty. Art and literature express the deepest expe- 
riences of the soul, and there can be no high art or 
great literature that is not inspired by belief in the 
universe as the expression of mind. Materialism is 
deadening to the finest sensibilities of the soul, and 
afflicts with a palsy the creative imagination. 

" Man is a religious being. The great theory of 
evolution shows how solid is the foundation upon which 
the religious life rests. The vast industrial and com- 
mercial system of modern times was gradually devel- 
oped to meet the increasing wants of man as a physical 
being. Art has come into being at the call of the 
aesthetic instinct. The great world-religions have been 
developed at the call of a need as imperative as hunger 
or thirst, or the craving for beauty. 

" Evolution tells us that man's body is not the chance 
product of natural forces, but that it is the goal toward 
which nature, through unmeasured periods of time, has 
been working. So with all that is characteristic of 
humanity. The soul of man is a product of the same 
cosmic process. The sense of duty and the conscious- 
ness of dependence upon a power greater than our- 
selves, out of which religion springs, have in the light 

[31] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



of modern knowledge a value incalculable. By them 
society, the state, and civilization are made possible, 
and the life of man finds its most perfect adjustment 
to the universe. The moral and religious instincts bind 
man to the thought of the infinite mind as expressed in 
the universe. These powers are stronger than the grip 
of gravitation. 4 Man cannot be God's outlaw if he 
would.' Instincts are the products of cosmic forces. 
They are not weakened by time and cannot be destroyed. 
As long as finite intelligence exists, religion will endure. 

" Man as a religious being expresses his sense of 
dependence in worship. The true nature of God, man 
has not always known; consequently his form of wor- 
ship has not always been of the highest order. It is 
no discredit upon religion that the most spiritual con- 
ceptions of the divine nature and the purest forms of 
worship have come late in the history of life. Science 
and art have had equally humble beginnings. They, 
too, have had to crawl before they could walk. The 
history of science and the history of art show slow 
progress from crudity, ignorance, and superstition to 
beauty, clear intelligence, and freedom of thought. It 
is strange that some men of science have prophesied 
the decay of religion and the disappearance of the 
church. When science shall have completely sifted all 
the ideas man has gathered in his long experience, the 
idea of God, they have said, will be laid aside as a 
gratuitous assumption. Such voices, a generation or 
more since, disturbed at times even the calm of philo- 
sophic minds. But now they are recognized as the 
cries of those who wander in the dawn of a new day, 
and fail to distinguish between shadow and reality. 
Science is not ultimate in the thought life, and will 

[32] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



never be accepted as a finality. It must justify itself 
to philosophy ere it can be received as a part of a 
system of thought. A new era has dawned for thought. 
To-day the scientist and the philosopher are nearing 
unity again. A distinguished scientist has said that 
if all the churches and altars of religion were torn 
down to-day they would be built up again to-morrow; 
that religion is not losing its hold, but only changing 
its grip. 

" All vital forces express themselves in forms which 
tend to preserve and perpetuate them. The church 
and the various forms of worship have been the organs 
through which the religious instinct has expressed 
itself, and by means of which definite religious ideas 
have been preserved. The function of the church is 
the cultivation of the religious instinct. Cultivation in- 
creases the efficiency of every power man possesses. 
The distinction between the savage and the civilized man 
lies not in difference of intellectual capacity, but in the 
character and degree of the cultivation of his powers. 

" The family, the state, the church represent the 
highest attainments and insure the future progress of 
mankind. In our country the state and church have 
been separated, and experience has shown that the 
existence of the church does not depend on the support 
of the state. In no country in the world is there a 
more healthy and vigorous religious life than in our 
own. No longer to the custody of the state, but to 
that of the church and the family, are religious ideas 
and the cultivation of the religious life entrusted. 

" Of first importance in the development of the reli- 
gious life is the cultivation of the devout spirit, — the 
spirit that recognizes its dependence upon God and ever 

[ S3 ] 



THE F AIRH AVE N 



seeks communion with Him. The church must be the 
house of prayer, and all its ministrations should 
strengthen the prayerful spirit. The lack of rever- 
ence is the great defect of the life of our time. The 
wise Goethe has told us that the first lesson a child 
should be taught is to look upward. We have strength, 
we have power, but where has the dignity, the grace, 
the beauty of yesterday gone? Without worship no 
life can be complete. Emerson has said that the atti- 
tude of prayer is the sublimest attitude man can 
assume. How paltry our lives, viewed in isolation, 
appear; but when looked at in relation to the divine 
life, what possible glory bursts upon us. 

" The church must foster this spirit of devotion, and 
to this end it should call art into its service and make 
the place of worship correspond to the dignity and 
beauty of the spirit of worship. The religious life is 
incomplete without the ministrations of beauty. The 
Greeks felt this, and so did men in the mediaeval period 
when the cathedrals of Europe were built. Our souls 
have been starving for a beauty that religion once 
clothed itself in. 

" Conscience drove our forefathers into the wilder- 
ness, and there, with grim fortitude, they held to the 
principles dearer to them than life itself. The plain 
meeting-house, and the freeman worshipping there, are 
certainly far more precious than the grandest cathe- 
dral where only slaves of custom and tradition perform 
a stated ceremonial. Better indeed the forest as a 
temple, though it be the lurking-place of wild beasts 
and savage men, than noble edifices in whose atmo- 
sphere conscience and free intelligence are stifled. 

" But now the cause they fought for has triumphed; 
[34] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



and just as the log cabin has given place to homes of 
wealth and refinement, so the plain meeting-house has 
given place to this beautiful church. Sooner or later 
ideas express themselves in fitting forms. When con- 
science compels the soul to leave forms of beauty en- 
deared to it by long association, and it goes forth into 
the wilderness to preserve its integrity, it will in time 
make the wilderness blossom as the rose. 

" God gives us no higher enjoyment than that which 
comes from the union of truth, beauty, and goodness. 
And should not the place of worship when thus made 
the house beautiful always be accessible? Its beauty 
and its suggestiveness should fall like a benediction, 
bringing peace to those who from day to day visit it 
for prayer. Things become dear to us as they are 
humanized; as they become associated with our joys 
and sorrows. By frequent association things get to 
partake of our personality, and it is then that they 
become of most value to our lives and to that of the 
community. The wood and stone, and all the material 
that goes into our churches must be glorified and spir- 
itualized by holy associations and tender memories. 
There is great need of the open church which has been 
made soul-satisfying by art. The church is also the 
means through which definite conceptions of the divine 
nature and man's relation to God are preserved and 
passed on from one generation to another. A learned 
French writer has said that there are three stages in 
the development of religious thought. These are the 
mythoiogic, the dogmatic, and the critical. We have 
already spoken of the crude ideas of God and the world 
that marked the beginning of human thought. Man 
was then but a child groping after the light. His eyes 

[35] 



THE FAIR HAVE N 



were then too weak to bear the full glory of the truth. 
But in time it flashed its splendor on vision strong to 
bear it, and God stood revealed to man as creative 
Intelligence, infinite Power, Holiness, and Love. We 
may mourn that the work of the Reformation might 
not have been done without destroying the unity of the 
church, but it appears as a necessary process by which 
a higher unity than that of organization shall be se- 
cured. Only in freedom can the mind do its best work. 
Truth can never be discovered while reason is restrained 
by authority other than that imposed upon it by its 
own nature. He who commits himself to truth commits 
himself to that which is stronger and more enduring 
than the stars. 

" The mythologic stage in the development of reli- 
gious thought has been outgrown, and a considerable 
portion of the civilized world has passed beyond the 
dogmatic stage. We are now in the age of free criti- 
cism — criticism in the interest of truth. The search- 
light of free intellectual inquiry has been turned upon 
all beliefs and institutions that have come down to us 
from the ages past. The result has been that some 
beliefs and institutions have been forever laid aside, 
while others have been modified. 

" The real aim of criticism has been to free society 
from ideas and institutions that, though once useful, 
now obstruct or impede its progress. 

" The critical spirit seeks to free the gold from the 
dross, — the universal from the particular. It shows 
that truth is larger than any of the historical forms 
under which it has been apprehended. 

" Our branch of the church universal is committed 
to this spirit of freedom. It is our privilege to show 

[36] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



that such a spirit is not destructive of the spirit of 
worship or of reverence for high ideals. Trusting in 
the moral constitution of the universe, we need fear no 
changes of thought that may come. The basis of our 
faith is not laid in dogma, but in the constitution of the 
soul. When systems of theology pass away we are not 
disturbed. We know that every faculty of our being 
propels us Godward. Whenever a conception of the 
divine nature has been abandoned, whenever sacred 
beliefs have been given up, we know that this has not 
been the result of skepticism. It has been a proof of 
the capacity of the mind for expansion. The period 
of transition from one stage of development to another 
may be painful, but the birth-pangs are soon forgotten 
in the joyous consciousness of a richer life. 

" Religious ideas, then, did not rise in the dark 
nights of ignorance, to be lost in the light of clear intel- 
ligence. Crude conceptions of the divine nature arose 
in man's ignorance ; but as the night of ignorance gave 
way to the dawn of intelligence, the growing light clari- 
fied man's vision. Strength came where there had been 
weakness ; beauty arose where there had been deform- 
ity ; and love was born where there had been fear. 

" As an expression of the religious instinct, which 
is a differentiating characteristic of humanity, the 
church will never pass away. As surely as physical 
forces operating through long periods of time formed 
the lofty mountains, so religious feeling moved through 
varied expressions until the Parthenon and the cathe- 
dral were developed." 

An anthem, " Lord, now lettest thy servant depart 
in peace," by Barnby, was sung by the choir. 

[37] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



This address by Rev. Robert Coelyer was given : 
" When Mr. Tripp wrote to say you wanted me to 
give two addresses on tins day of the dedication, one 
at the close of the morning service and the other in the 
evening, and intimated that they must be brief, but did 
not add, ' and to the point,' as well he might have done, 
I wrote him after some delay that I would take the 
contract on those terms. But when I began to muse 
over what I should say I seemed to come up agamst a 
dead wall. Mr. Beecher used to say that two dis- 
courses on the same Sunday was like two pellets in a 
potato popgun — the one was apt to drive the other 
out ; and then the words of the Scriptures came home 
to me, 4 What shall he say who cometh after the King? ' 
For Brother Savage was to preach the sermon in the 
morning, and I have learned, after listening to his 
sermons these eight years, that he would meet the full 
demand, so that there would be no room even for what 
they call over the sea a sermonette. 

" So this morning I tried to steer clear of what might 
have been the rock of offence, and said the word of 
gladness that had been singing itself in my heart since 
the corner-stone was laid of this new church : and 
when the notes were inscribed on the paper, all too brief 
for my liking, but not, it may well be, for yours — 
there was the wall. It would not be hard to say some 
more words of about the same tenor ; but my wise 
mentor of forty years, who is with us no more, used 
to say sometimes — bless her heart and her memory — 
that the few words more after she felt I had done were 
apt to be far too many and the poorest. So, trying 
to get beyond the wall, the thought came to me that 
I would try tins evening to tell you a story, or, shall 

[38] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



I say, touch some memories of a church in my mother- 
land that has stood, as we may fairly infer, for a 
thousand years, and, by the record in Domesday Book, 
was standing where it stands now eight hundred and 
twenty years ago, — a simple country church when I 
sat therein for the first time seventy -two years ago this 
summer, and after the lapse of six years, when I left 
my dear home to serve my time in the forge, I sat there 
as boy and man until I came to this new world fifty- 
four years ago last May, — the church I mentioned 
this morning, in the town where they were holding the 
feast of dedication in the week before last, with no 
especial beauty that one should desire it, but beautiful 
to me for its venerable age and touching suggestions, 
since I came to know so much of its story as I presume 
can be known, and not built like this in which we gather, 

— that will stand, please God, with due care, for the 
thousand years, strong and sure on her foundations, 

— but was rebuilt when the need came, and enlarged, 
yet was the same good old church, the centre of the life 
and worship of the Most High, the lamp of f aith which 
has been blown fitfully now and then in the storms of 
the wild centuries, but has never gone out. And the 
story of the lamp's lighting is to my own heart and 
mind the finest and most touching as Beda tells it in 
the old Saxon annals. Edwin, the king of the land 
north of the Humber, was driven to the wall by the 
enemy in what Hume calls 6 the fights of the kites and 
the crows,' and was in instant peril of his life. He was a 
pagan, as they were then in the north, to whom no word 
had come of the Christian faith and hope in God and in 
his Christ. But his wife, who had come from the south- 
ward, had heard the gospel and was a Christian woman. 

[39] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



" In the year 626 the head of the church in Rome 
was moved to send Paulinus as a missionary into our 
north land; the good wife was glad for him, gave him 
a warm welcome, and would fain have him tell her 
husband the good tidings. But he was shy; he would 
stand by the old banner of the raven, and have none 
of the cross. Then there are dreams in the wonder- 
book. I must not pause to recite, but through these 
and the good wife's interpretations Edwin will hear the 
man, but not alone. He will call a council of his thanes, 
and they shall judge with him touching the mission and 
message of Paulinus. So they came together at God- 
mundingham, some miles to the east and north of where 
our church stands, and where the temple stood, of the 
pagan worship. They heard the message, and Edwin 
was willing to embrace the new truth and accept the 
rite of baptism; but he would first hear from his wise 
men, the princes and thanes, for they would all stand 
together. The high priest of the temple spoke first, 
and said: 'O King, consider this we have heard; for 
to my own experience the religion we hold has no worth 
in it. 5 This he said and much more not worth our time, 
and then a thane said: 6 The present life of man on 
the earth, O King, seems to me, in comparison with the 
life unknown to us, like the swift flight of a bird 
through the hall where you sit at supper with your 
thanes in the winter. A good fire has been lighted in 
the midst of the hall, and you are made warm while the 
storms rage abroad. The bird I see flying in at one 
door; while he is in he is safe from the storm, but after 
a short time he flies out at another door into the dark 
winter again. So this life of man is for a short space 
here on the earth; but of what went before or what is 

[40] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 

to follow we do not know ; and if this new doctrine 
contains something more, it is to be embraced and fol- 
lowed.' This is the story ; the thanes and the king said 
Amen, and with all his nobles and many common folk 
he was baptized in the river. So the lamp was lighted 
in the north; and wherever Paulinus preached and 
baptized, three crosses were set up as symbols of the 
Holy Trinity, and the space for a church was set apart 
and held until the church was built. The three crosses, 
full of rude Saxon sculpture, bear witness to the light- 
ing of the lamp there on the rise above the river, where 
our venerable church stands. They are headless now, 
and, until a time I well remember, two of them were 
gate posts, much broken, and I was of some small use 
in their rescue from the degradation ; and now they are 
safe from harm. How soon after this year of the 
king's conversion some rude structure was raised there 
we cannot even guess, but we touch just here a gleam 
of light. About one hundred years after Caesar landed 
on the southern coast of Britain, the legions had forced 
their way into the north and subdued the Brigantes, 
who were very good fighters. They took the strong- 
holds — eleven all told ; you will find their names in 
Ptolemy's geography; and one of these was Olicana, 
on the sharp rise above the river where my fine old 
church stands. They built a fort on the same site, to 
hold the land and keep the tribe in some sort of sub- 
jection, and held it almost down to the time vhen the 
legions went home to defend Rome against the swarms 
of barbarians who were to bring her down to t,ie dust. 
On the campus within the forts they also reared a 
temple; and after they had gone, as you know, the 
Saxons came, were converted to the Christian faith in 

[41] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



the rough and ready fashion I have touched, took 
possession of the stronghold, and drove the poor 
half-breeds to the mountains and dens and caves to the 
westward. The town and fortress went to the man who 
could win and hold it, and the church was built where 
the temple stood; for when Camden came to our town 
in 1582 in search of antiquities, he found tablets built 
into the walls, dedicated to the emperors Antoninus and 
Verus, and to Sever us. These must have stood in the 
temple; and the uncle of Fairfax, the great general, 
who lived two miles away, found an altar. There were 
more finds I cannot pause to name ; but those built into 
the walls of the church must point to a time when the 
fortress was pulled down by the Saxon invaders, who 
loved best to fight in the open, not man to wall, but man 
to man. 

" So there it stands, where it has stood from a time, 
I say, of which we have no record, the parish church, 
the people's church, the light set on a hill that has 
never quite gone out. The Conqueror laid the land 
waste from the Humber to the Tyne, so that for six 
years there was no man to till the land, and the dead 
lay on the highways with no man to bury them; and 
in the record of the Domesday Book the land is marked 
waste; but there is the church and the priest; and 
as I sit musing I see the poor remnant steal out of the 
woods to matins and vespers, and hear some word of 
hope and cheer from the good shepherd of the flock. 
Athelstan had given some lands and the church to 
the archbishop, and these the Conqueror must spare. 
Two hundred and forty years after, the Scots came 
pouring south after Bannockburn and burnt the town ; 
but the Lady Percy in her report does not tell of dam- 

[42] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



age to the church, nor does the report to London. Only 
one church was burnt, a few miles down the river; and 
there are marks of burning still on another, but that 
is all; and again they would steal out of the woods 
so heavy that for miles, as the tradition stood in my 
time, a squirrel could travel and never touch the 
ground. 

" Thirty years after this, when the black death came 
and swept away, it is said, three fourths of the popu- 
lation at a stroke, I watch the remnant go through 
the ancient carven doorway to find some surcease from 
the sorrow, some sure defence against despair; for the 
lamp was still alight. Again, as we sat in our pew, I 
would muse over the altar tomb of Sir Adam with the 
effigy as large as life — the crusader in his chain mail, 
who was laid in his vault now almost six hundred years 
ago by the record, — from which record you also learn 
that the monks of Bolton six miles up the river sold 
them six quarters of malt for the ale drunk at the 
funeral; and I may say, in passing, the six quarters 
came to twelve dollars in our tenor, — and his dust still 
lives in the vault. It fell to my lot and liking to tell 
part of the story of the church and the town, so far 
as it can be told, for a book that was printed in Eng- 
land ; and as I would write the chapters, I saw the 
generations in the long procession of the centuries 
bear their children through the ancient doorway to 
the baptism in the rude, and, as I take it, at the ancient 
font; and the young men and maidens I saw with a 
happy light in their eyes come with their friends to 
make the sacred vows, and can follow the words, 6 Here 
I take thee to be my wedded wife, to hold and to have 
at bed and at board, for farer or later, for better for 

[48] 



THE FAIRH AVE N 



worse, in sickness and in hile to dede us depart and 
thereto I plight thee my troth.' So runs the vow in 
the record older than the Conquest. And when life is 
done they are borne one by one to the burial in the 
God's acre, set apart when the three crosses were 
reared where the apostle halted on his way to Dews- 
bury, a few miles to the south, and must pass through 
our town on the old Roman road. I have the poll-tax 
list of 1379, which gives you the name of every man 
from the age of sixteen who can earn day's wages, tells 
you his business or his craft, and if he is married or 
single, so that you seem to know them all; and the 
single women, who must also pay the tax; while there 
are names in the list you could still trace forward or 
backward, down to my day, living there still, — and all 
these were familiar to the good parson of the town, 
who could handle them without gloves, make them 
smart for it in this world and live in fear of what would 
surely befall them in the world to come if they did not 
mind him and hear the church, in the good old times. 
Before the Reformation a name appears in the manor 
court rolls, and other records of three or four families 
whose name holds in our new world a patent of nobility, 
— the Longfellows, — and I would love to tell you 
their story if there was time. The last time I went 
to see the good poet he said, 4 Now tell me more about 
our fore-elders in your town.' 

" They were a stout and a stalwart race, and not 
seldom got into trouble, but never for any crime. They 
went to the old church for more than two hundred 
years ; and some years ago the vicar showed me the 
register, in which I read in rugged script the baptism 
of the babe, who in his early manhood moved a few 

[44] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



miles south, — John Longfellow, — and came in due 
time to our new world and married a sister of Judge 
Sewall; he was the fore-elder of the honored line, so 
you see we are of kin to the old church on the hill. 

" And the Hebers, a branch of the line from which 
the good bishop came, — the hall is still there that was 
their home; and in the traditions of sixty years ago 
there still lingered a fragrance of a very sweet reli- 
gious life I try to recall when I sit in the living-room 
with my old friend, yeoman Ellis. They helped to 
endow the school started early in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, and remembered the poor in fine bequests. Regi- 
nald, the first of the line, had three sons and one 
daughter. Captain John Heber fought under Crom- 
well, and died on the 9th of April, 1649, at twenty- 
eight years of age. The daughter, Lettice, eleven 
days after, aged eighteen, and Christopher, another 
son, on the 8th of May, 1649, aged twenty-six. So 
the sad record on the tablets of copper read, — two 
sons and a daughter in early manhood and womanhood, 
all borne through the ancient doorway of the church to 
the burial. We know nothing of the reasons for the 
fatal stroke, or, if any word was said by the living 
touching the great desolation ; but these are the words 
the good son, Reginald, has told them to engrave on 
the last tablet : 4 I am persuaded that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
height, nor depth shall separate me from the love of 
God; ' and here is the fruitage from the seed sown on 
that day in six hundred and twenty-seven about the 
bird flying through the hall from the dark into the dark 
again. 

" The church stands on the hill, and as the memory 
[45] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



touches me this evening in this strong and stately pile, 
I ask : 6 What of the thousand years to come, if you 
in this generation and those who come after you in 
this Fairhaven are faithful to the trust placed in your 
hands this day, and the high and sacred purpose of the 
giver ? ' Then I say, what has been shall be in the 
long procession of the ages ; the lamp over the altar 
shall burn clear, and more light shall shine through 
all the ages from the word of God. The long proces- 
sion will pass through this church also, and noble and 
beautiful the records will stand, and here will be a 
church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the 
truth." 

After the address, the congregation sang hymn 226, 
" Nearer, My God, to Thee," which follows: 

Nearer, my God, to thee, 

Nearer to thee ; 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me, 
Still all my song would be, 
Nearer, my God, to thee, — 

Nearer to thee ! 

Though, like a wanderer, 

The sun gone down, 
Darkness be over me, 

My rest a stone, 
Yet in my dreams I 'd be 
Nearer, my God, to thee, — 

Nearer to thee ! 

There let the way appear 
Steps unto heaven ; 
[46] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



All that thou sendest me 

In mercy given ; 
Angels to beckon me 
Nearer, my God, to thee, — 

Nearer to thee ! 

Then with my waking thoughts, 

Bright with thy praise, 
Out of my stony griefs 

Bethel I '11 raise ; 
So by my woes to be 
Nearer, my God, to thee, — 

Nearer to thee ! 

Rev. Dr. Collyer pronounced the benediction, and 
the organ postlude was played by Alton B. Paull, 
organist of the church. 



[47] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



AT the close of the vesper service the following 
/-% programme was played on the chimes by Chester 
Meneely, a member of the firm that made the 
bells : Changes, " Fair Harvard," " Last Rose of 
Summer," " My Maryland," Selection, " Blue Bells of 
Scotland," " Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," " Two 
Roses," " Auld Lang Syne," Selection, " Wearing of 
the Green," " Robin Adair," Selection, " America," 
" Doxology," " Home, Sweet Home." Each tune was 
repeated. 



The dedication programme was carried out under 
the direction of the following committee : Job C. Tripp, 
chairman ; Walter P. Winsor, George B. Luther, 
Mrs. Sarah C. Anthony, Mrs. Zenas Winsor. 



The ushers in charge of seating the congregation 
were George B. Luther, Nathaniel Pope, Bertram F. 
Stowell, H. H. Hathaway, John H. Stetson, Henry V. 
Bisbee, Harry L. Pope, Clifton A. Hacker, Alton B. 
Paull, Louis A. Delano, Elisha S. Whiting, Jr., Charles 
F. Swift, Charles A. Wilson. 



[48] 



VIEW OF CHURCH AND TOWER 
FROM PARSONAGE 



A DESCRIPTION OF 
THE CHURCH BUILDINGS 




HE Memorial Church build- 
ings comprise a group of 
three, — a church, a parish 
house, and a parsonage, so 
placed as to form three sides 
of a quadrangle. 



The church building has 
very naturally been given the 
greatest importance both in 



character of materials and in the elaboration of them. 

The plan is that of an English parish church of 
the fifteenth century, with large central nave, carried 
to a considerable height, terminating at the east end 
in a chancel or choir. The two side aisles, running 
parallel to the nave, are divided from it by arcades, 
which support the clerestory walls. The walls of the 
exterior are of granite, which has a very great 
variety of warm coloring; and the ornamental por- 
tions are all of limestone of a dark tone of color. 
The walls of the interior, as well as the ceilings of 
the minor portions, are buff limestone, somewhat dif- 
ferent in color and texture from that used on the 
exterior. 



[49] 



THE FAIR HAVE N 



The choir screen, organ fronts, pulpit, seats, and 
other interior woodwork are of English oak of the 
rarest kind, selected with the greatest care. 

In the designing of the interior an endeavor has 
been made to secure the effect of dignity and grandeur 
by the employment throughout of limestone of a light 
tone of color, but to relieve it of the coldness, which is 
the usual result of this treatment, by the use of mate- 
rials of warm, dark colors in the floors, the woodwork, 
and the various furnishings. 

Taking the various portions of the building sepa- 
rately for a detailed description, one begins natu- 
rally with the nave. The floor there is of a variety 
of marbles ; the portion partially hidden beneath the 
seats is of square blocks of marble from Tennessee, 
around which is placed an elaborately panelled frame, 
visible in the aisles, of marble from the quarries of 
Italy, Switzerland, and southern France, Languedocs, 
Sienna, and Alpsgreen. The arcades which divide the 
nave from the aisles on either side are each of five 
bays. One is occupied by the organ loft and one by 
the southeast porch. Upon the former, in a series of 
four niches, are four female figures of the period of 
the Middle Ages, draped in interesting costumes, play- 
ing musical instruments used at that time. This 
choir of female musicians is flanked by ornamental 
buttresses terminating in pinnacles of most lively 
appearance. 

The ornamentation of the arches of the nave arcade 
is varied in each instance, the five principal motifs 
which have been extensively used throughout the work 
being employed here; namely, the hawthorn, vine, 
maple, oak, and ivy. This ornamentation springs 

[50] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



from a series of semi-grotesque sculptural ornaments, 
seven of which are symbolical of the days of the week, 
illustrated by the process of manufacturing woollen 
cloth from the wool, each portion showing a day's 
progress: Monday, sheaving; Tuesday, carding; 
Wednesday, warping; Thursday, spinning; Friday, 
weaving; Saturday, finishing; Sunday, resting. The 
five senses are also symbolized, together with the four 
cardinal virtues, — Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and 
Temperance, — as well as the four last things, — 
Death, Judgment, Condemnation, Resurrection. 

The endeavor here, as in every single portion of the 
work upon the buildings, has been to introduce into the 
forms and detail as great a variety as a proper regard 
for symmetry would permit. 

The stone tracery in the windows above the arches is 
varied in every case, even to the section of the mould- 
ings. The tracery forms used in these windows, as will 
be noticed, are not all of exactly the same character, 
the best motifs of the various periods of English Gothic 
having been selected. The stops at the springs of the 
window arches are symbolical of the seven mortal sins, 
and the seven contrary virtues, besides which there are 
six of a miscellaneous character. 

The mouldings over the windows in the aisles below 
spring from figures representing Thought, Prayer, 
Sorrow, Meditation, Invocation; also a number of 
grotesques representing the people of the Middle 
Ages, pages and servants, a jester, a miller, and a 
troubadour. 

The ceiling of the nave is constructed of American 
oak, used for the sake of the large figure. The lines 
of the piers of the arcades below are defined here by 

[51] 



THE F AIRH AVE N 



the heavy trusses which are placed directly over them, 
dividing the ceiling into five bays, each of which is sub- 
divided into many panels, ornamented with Tudor 
flower-tips. Each of the bays of the nave is treated 
in a different manner as to ornament. 

Five motifs are used here, as in a great many other 
places, — hawthorn in one, ivy in another, oak, vine, 
and maple in the rest. The many shields placed on 
the lower chords of the trusses and on the cornice bear 
a great variety of Christian symbols emblazoned in 
gold and color. The ten large-winged figures which 
stand as the central features on each side of the trusses 
bear inscriptions which explain that they are symbolical 
of ten attributes of the intellectual life, — Philosophy, 
Rhetoric, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, Grammar, As- 
trology, Metaphysics, Dialectic, and Theology. 

On the north wall, connecting with the tower, is the 
Minstrels Gallery, so called, which in the present in- 
stance is intended simply as a point of observation, 
but is of a type which one finds so often in English 
cathedral churches, where they were formerly used, as 
the name implies, by musicians during the service. 

The comparatively small portion of the interior of 
the church, which is of wood, — that is to say, the 
pulpit and rail, organ fronts, choir screen, seats, and 
the doors, — has been given, both in the character of 
the material and in its ornamentation, architectural 
and sculptural, as great a degree of richness as the 
magnitude of the work would permit. 

The choir screen, which is stretched between the two 
limestone walls of the chancel, just behind the chancel 
arch, is a composition consisting of nine panels, sepa- 
rated by tinv buttresses with pinnacles, and each hav- 

[52] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



ing a tympanum filled with tracery. Above the line 
of panels is a continuous vaulted canopy, having a 
parapet of perforated tracery, the whole being sur- 
mounted by a Tudor flower cresting. The tracery of 
the lower panels springs from small, delicately carved 
corbels, in which the eagle and the dove appear in 
various forms, intertwined with foliage. On the 
canopy over each of the pendants supporting the 
vault, the tracery blossoms out with wheat, ivy, 
morning glory, thistle, poppies, and vines. 

All forms, floral as well as animal, which lend them- 
selves well to decorative effect have been employed here 
or in other parts of the work. 

The principal sculptural feature of the screen is the 
line of busts on the large band of ornament over the 
canopy. These figures are symbolic of the gifts of 
the Holy Spirit, Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, 
Spiritual Strength, Knowledge, True Godliness, and 
Holy Fear. A most interesting one of this series is 
the figure typifying Holy Fear, which is represented 
holding a small model of the church, which, even 
though minute in scale, is an exceedingly faithful 
copy of the original. Upon the tracery parapet at 
the top of the screen are a series of shields bearing 
devices of a scriptural character: the Ark of the 
Covenant, the Labarum, the Hand of God, the Agnus 
Dei, the Serpent in the Wilderness, and others. 

In the selection of symbols for use on the building, 
it was attempted to cover the whole architectural his- 
tory of the church. 

The speakers' platform, which is directly in front 
of the choir screen, is entirely of marble, — the front 
of Alpsgreen and the floor of Knoxville, which latter, 

[53] 



THE FAIR HAVE N 



however, is screened from view by its covering of heavy- 
Turkish carpet. 

The pulpit, which occupies a central position at the 
front of the platform, has been elaborated to the utmost 
extent. Above a comparatively simple marble pedestal, 
it consists of an octagonal enclosure open at one side, 
the other sides being divided into tracery panels, and 
the corners bearing niches. In these niches have been 
placed figures, the treatment of which is quite unusual. 
They represent the four major prophets, — Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, — and two minor 
prophets, — Zachariah and Micah, — each of which 
bears an unrolled scroll on which is written the tenor 
of the message which it was his mission to deliver. 

Behind the pulpit are three seats for the clergy, 
upholstered in leather of a peculiar tone of color made 
especially for the work. In the designing* of these 
seats the clergy's stalls in the cathedral churches of 
England were used as suggestions. Upon the apex 
of the piscina, forming the back of the central chair 
of honor, stands an angel reading from the Book of 
Life, and on each arm is an angel bearing a dove, 
symbolic of the Holy Ghost. 

THE organ is divided into two parts and placed 
in two -rooms, one at each side of the west end 
of the nave, adjoining the chancel arch. The 
openings between these rooms and the nave and aisles 
are screened by English oak organ fronts, in the 
designing and construction of which elaboration of 
detail has been carried almost to its utmost limit. 

The principal screens, one at either side of the 
chancel, are duplicates in form, although varied con- 

[54] 



THE PARSONAGE 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



siderably in ornamentation and detail. Above a base 
of Alpsgreen marble, the lower part of each front is 
a continuation of the motif used in the choir screen, 
on the same level bounded by octagonal niches bearing 
figures of winged trumpeters. Directly above these 
are the lines of carved busts representing boys in 
mediaeval costume, playing curious instruments of the 
period, and a series of interesting shields. These are 
supplemented by the choir of winged choristers one 
stage higher. 

The solid treatment of the screens at this stage is 
intended as a basement for the delicate perforated 
structures above. These superstructures of the fronts 
have three prominent features, — two large, projecting 
rolls of pipes, one at each side, containing the great 
tubes of the organ, some of which are thirty-two feet, 
and a smaller roll in the centre, the whole connected 
with curtains of tracery, and the pipes clasped to- 
gether with bands below and grouped in un vaulted 
canopies above. Above the pipes the whole culminates 
in the most intricate of tracery and the richest of 
ornament, terminating at the height of forty feet in 
the finials of the spires over the great canopies. The 
visible pipes, a number of which speak, and others of 
which are dummies, are decorated in clouded silver with 
conventional foliage in color, so blended into the back- 
ground as to prevent its conflicting with the orna- 
mentation of the woodwork. 

The organ is one of the finest and most effective in 
New England, although not the largest. For funda- 
mental tone it probably excels anything in the country. 



[55] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



THERE are three principal entrances to the 
church; the first, the southeast porch, so 
called, an open loggia guarded by bronze fold- 
ing gates, which is a small vestibule built entirely of 
stone. The ceiling is a net vault with foliated bosses. 

The floor, which is of Italian and French marbles, is 
of considerable interest on account of the twelve brass 
inlays arranged in the form of an ellipse, representing 
the signs of the Zodiac, modelled in low relief. 

The second entrance is through the tower vestibule 
connecting with the cloister on the northeast corner 
of the church, which is also finished in stone, but in 
a considerably more elaborate manner. It is covered 
by a fan vault of the type which one sees in the 
cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral in England. At the 
four corners are figures representing the four ages 
of man, — Infancy, Youth, Maturity, and Old Age. 
There are a number of interesting stops at the sides 
of the panels representing pilgrims bound for the Holy 
Land. The floor is of marble, wherein are placed four 
brass inlays of a rather unusual kind, being themselves 
inlaid with German cement in a number of bright 
colors. They bear the symbols of the four Evangelists. 

Connecting the tower vestibule with the parish build- 
ing is the cloister, a structure of two open bays and 
one closed bay, forming a part of the building which 
it adjoins. 

The open portion is paved with Roman Mosaic de- 
signed in three long panels with a green marble border. 
The stone walls are perforated with traceried openings 

[ 56 ] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



moulded with unusual richness, and the ceiling is a net 
vault of two bays. The heavy rib which divides the 
two portions of the vaults springs on each side from 
a curiously conceived piece of sculpture; on one side 
symbolizing " Relief for the Christians," and on the 
other " Consolation of the Afflicted." 

At the two entrances to the cloister are swinging 
bronze grilled gates of the most intricate design, the 
making of which taxed the metal worker's utmost skill. 

From the small tower loggia between the cloister 
and the tower entrance access is had to the stone 
winding staircase of one hundred and fifty steps, 
which mount through the turret to the different levels 
of the tower. First of all, one arrives at the ringing 
gallery, thirty feet above the ground, containing the 
levers for ringing the bells. There is one other floor 
before the bell deck itself is reached, at the height of 
ninety feet. On this deck, surrounded by perforated 
traceried openings without louvres, which give free 
egress to the sound, is the chime of eleven bells, weigh- 
ing, together, over fourteen thousand pounds. 

It required infinite study and investigation of the 
matter to arrive at the conclusion regarding the scale 
to be used in this chime of bells ; and the endeavor was 
to secure in tone the equal, at least, of anything of the 
kind in existence. 

The third entrance, or rear loggia, is an open cor- 
ridor forming the connecting link between the two 
western turrets. The floor is of encaustic tiles, the 
walls are limestone, pierced by traceried openings, and 
the ceiling is of wood, with heavy beams in patterns. 
This entrance gives access to the minister's reception 
room at the south side of the chancel. This room, 

[57] 



THE FAIR HAVEN 



while being comparatively small in size, has been 
made elaborate in its treatment to quite a consider- 
able degree. 

The rear loggia also gives access to the choir meet- 
ing-room at the north side of the chancel, a room 
equipped with wardrobes, settles, and all the things 
necessary for the comfort and convenience of the 
musicians. 

Ready communication is arranged between here and 
the large choir dressing-room in the basement, and 
with the gallery in the chancel, where the organist and 
singers are placed. In one corner is the great console 
of the organ, connected by electric cables with the 
various parts of the organ, and being in itself a work 
of great interest from a mechanical and musical stand- 
point. 

The upper part of the chancel of the church, in 
which the singers' gallery is placed, has been designed 
to form a setting for the central feature of the church, 
— the great memorial window. The walls on each 
side are entirely free from lighting of any sort, so as 
to strengthen the effect of light through this window, 
but are completely covered by tryptics of intricate 
design cut in the limestone. The limestone vault over- 
head is of the net type, springing from bosses where 
the Eagle, Lion, Ox, and Angel are placed as symbols 
of the four Evangelists, following the lines of the 
frame of the window, of which it forms a part. This 
frame consists of a series of quatrefoils enclosed be- 
tween columns in the lower part and delicate ribs above. 
The motif used in the forms of the tracery is that of 
the great window at Carlisle in England. 



[58] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



THE exterior of the church presents many inter- 
esting features. One is the pair of limestone 
figures on the southeast porch. In the niche at 
the left-hand side of the door Saint Peter is represented 
as Simon the Fisherman, the impulsive and devoted 
follower of Christ, although he holds in his hand the 
symbol of his later prestige in the church. 

On the other side, Saint Paul is represented in his 
«dual character as Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of 
the Christians, with his scroll and seals emblematical 
of his commission to make war on Christ's followers, 
and also with the sword of the spirit typifying his 
great power in the cause of Christ in later life. 

On the west end of the church may be seen some- 
thing of the aspiring effect which has been continually 
striven for, — the sense of everything soaring upward, 
pointing toward the sky. The two turrets which flank 
the central feature of the church, the memorial window, 
commence on a heavy base, gradually diminish in size, 
and become lighter and more delicate in treatment, 
until their slender spires terminate in the carved finials. 

The great tower, one hundred and fifty-six feet high, 
which has been designed to dominate the group of 
buildings, rises with a comparatively plain shaft but- 
tressed at the corners until it reaches the belfry stage, 
where it blossoms out into ornamentation as rich and 
intricate as at that height could properly be used. 
Each of the four faces is filled with one single feature, 
— a traceried opening into the bell chamber, arched 
with a ponderous archivolt, above which rises the per- 
forated parapet surrounding the tower roof. Three 

[59] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



of the corners of the tower terminate in small pin- 
nacles of many parts, and the fourth in the spire of 
the turret which overtops the main portion of the 
tower by forty feet. 

THE parish house, while covering a much larger 
area, has yet been so planned as to be subor- 
dinate in mass to the church building, winch is 
the dominating feature of the group. The type of 
Gothic which has been employed in its design is that 
of the dependencies or semi-secular houses in connection 
with the great English cathedrals of the later Gothic 
period. The facade is divided into three portions. 
Two gables flank the principal entrance, which is in 
the centre of the main front on Green Street. This 
entrance consists of a small open loggia leading to 
a larger closed vestibule, which in turn opens upon 
the long corridor from which the principal rooms of the 
building are accessible, and at one end of which is the 
cloister entrance, previously referred to. 

At the south end of the building is the Sunday- 
school room, which is carried the full height of the 
building. The great trusses on the ceiling are of the 
hammer beam type, arranged in the form of a square. 
The corbels of these trusses are ornamented at each 
of the four corners with a very effective carved oak 
figure. The stage, which is supplied with several sets 
of scenery and a very complete scheme of lighting, 
occupies one side of the room, and is flanked by two 
ante-rooms, one of which is used ordinarily as a 
Sunday-school library. On the opposite side of the 
room, up one story, is a small but richly treated 
balcony. 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



Adjoining the Sunday-school room is the dining- 
room, of almost equal size, but treated in an entirely 
different manner. The ceiling is polygonal in section, 
with simple »cross trusses dividing it into five bays. 
The most conspicuous figure of this room is the large 
Caen stone mantel of the type found so frequently 
in the semi-ecclesiastical buildings of England. The 
room is furnished with a very handsome centre-table 
and chairs, and with a sufficient number of large 
collapsible tables to fill both it and the Sunday- 
school room. The partition between them has been 
so planned as to be readily removable, thus making 
one large room, having at each end a large stone- 
traceried window filled with architectural stained glass 
of striking beauty. The windows throughout the 
building are designed with architectural ornament 
exclusively, and are of rare merit. In the lower por- 
tion of each window is one of a series of quotations 
selected with the greatest care. There are two kitchens 
in the building, one in the first story and the other in 
the basement. 

At one end of the main hall there is a daintily 
finished parlor for the use of the ladies, having a 
richly carved mantel. At the other end is a gentle- 
men's lounging-room, and directly above this there is 
another lounging-room for those who smoke. The 
finish of the building throughout is of oak, treated 
in various ways. 

The parsonage has been designed without connection 
of any sort with the other buildings. Its exterior ap- 
pearance is of a radically different character as re- 
gards material; for while the first story is of local 
granite and limestone, as are the others, the second 

[61] 



THE FAIRHAVEN 



story is of so-called open timber construction. The 
verge boards, plates, girts, battens, and other ex- 
terior woodwork is of a fine quality of teak with an 
adzed face. The panels are all filled with plaster 
with the surface stippled in a most careful manner, 
with a view of getting a peculiar effect of studied 
unevenness. 

The interior of this building has been kept com- 
paratively simple, with the exception of the hall, which 
is finished in teak, in a somewhat elaborate manner. 



THE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS 

THE interior decorations of the church offered 
an opportunity, for the artist to whom the 
creation was intrusted, which has come to few 
masters, inasmuch as the windows form the decora- 
tion, so far as color is concerned. The result will 
increase the fame of Robert Reid, already one of the 
chief painters and designers of America. He is well 
known for his mural decorations, and his work may 
be found in the Congressional Library at Washing- 
ton, the Appellate Court House in New York City, 
the State House of Massachusetts, and the Paulist 
Fathers' Church, New York City. 

The windows form a color symphony, which begins 
with the memorial window at the west, and ends with 
the corresponding large window at the east. The idea 
is a gradual change from the colder, mysterious light 
of the blue night window, " The Nativity," to the 
warm glow of the daylight of " The Sermon on The 
Mount." The intermediate windows of the clerestory, 

[62] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



with the smaller aisle windows, represent the Nine 
Beatitudes, and in color and composition complete the 
general plan, grading from cold to warm and from 
warm to cold around the entire church. This beautiful 
scheme has probably never before been conceived. 

In 44 The Nativity," the idea represented is the birth 
of light emanating from the child, through the blue 
mystery of the night. The 44 Sermon on the Mount " 
is typical of The Man and his teaching. 

44 The Nativity " window is a picture of great bril- 
liance, with the fire of gems in its gorgeous coloring of 
reds and pinks, blues, greens, purples, and yellows. 

To the Mother and Child in the central panel there 
come, on the one hand, the Wise Men, — two in the 
adjoining panel and one in the outer panel; and on 
the other hand, Shepherds similarly grouped. The 
Magi clasp their gifts. The Shepherds behold in 
wonderment. 

All but the outermost figure of each group are full 
in the glorified radiance emanating from the Child, 
and this divine effulgence illumines the whole compo- 
sition, lessening as it diffuses itself toward the remoter 
figures and among the angels that fill the upper space 
of all the panels. 

In the outer panels, besides the figures and the 
angels, are the trunks of trees, the lines of which are 
continued among the interstices of the Gothic tracery, 
where the glass has the blue of a starlight sky. 

Mr. Reid's distinct achievement, however, in this 
work, apart from the control of the light, is in his 
success in retaining the flesh quality in the figures. 
This he has done in a way to make it immediately 
notable. 

[63] 



MEMORIAL CHURCH 



In the " Sermon on the Mount " Christ is repre- 
sented as standing among his disciples, but giving the 
benediction to the multitude, which is not in the picture, 
but which is, in reality, the congregation in the church 
— those who are actually looking at the window. The 
colors, which are Mr. Reid's absolutely, produce in 
the glass an illumination vibrant and beautiful. Par- 
ticularly distinctive are the long, graceful lines of 
the design. 

Two years were spent in designing and executing 
these two windows, and the artist regards them as his 
most important work. 



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